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Premier defends untendered contract involving $81M power plant for Ont. casino
By Maria Babbage, THE CANADIAN PRESS
Friday, October 30, 2009

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WINDSOR, Ont. - Awarding an untendered contract to operate an $81-million energy centre that powers the Caesar’s Windsor casino was the right step "under the circumstances," Premier Dalton McGuinty said Friday.

His government ended the longstanding practice of awarding contracts without competitive bids in the wake of a spending scandal at eHealth Ontario, but handing a sole-sourced deal to keep the Windsor Energy Centre running was a special case, he said.

"I’m confident that we took the right steps under the circumstances," McGuinty said before heading to Caesar’s Windsor for his party’s annual meeting.

The deal with Angus Consulting Management Ltd. to temporarily run the energy centre - which is currently the subject of a lawsuit - was done before those measures were announced, he added.

"There was a circumstance that arose where, because of difficulties, we had to have somebody on the job effectively right away to keep the lights on," McGuinty said.

The search for a permanent operator of the plant is currently underway and that contract will be open to competitive bids, he added.

Finance Minister Dwight Duncan, who represents a Windsor riding, has come under fire in recent weeks over the soaring cost of the energy centre, which even he admits came in way over its initial $40-million budget.

The Opposition Conservatives have suggested that the plant, which was commissioned by the problem-plagued Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp., amounts to political pork-barrelling - an accusation Duncan vehemently denies.

"I wasn’t even minister at the time," he said Friday. "They’ve also said it’s in my riding. It’s not. There are just a lot of factual errors there."

The Tories have also questioned why the province’s lottery agency got into the energy business in the first place and spent millions of taxpayers’ dollars on a plant that isn’t providing power to the provincial grid.

According to the OLG, the energy centre provides heating, cooling and backup power to the new hotel tower, convention areas and entertainment centre at Caesar’s Windsor casino, which opened in July 2008. It sits in the riding of Liberal cabinet minister Sandra Pupatello.

Buttcon Ltd. started construction on the plant for the OLG in 2007 and Buttcon Energy Inc. had operated the plant until recently, it said. Angus is currently operating the plant in the short term.

The contract with Buttcon regarding the energy centre was also untendered, Duncan’s spokeswoman confirmed. That contract is currently the subject of a $355-million lawsuit filed by Buttcon Energy against the OLG in August.

The lawsuit alleges breach of contract, "misfeasance (and) misrepresentation," among other claims which have not been proven in court. The OLG said it will fight those allegations in court.

Duncan has said the enormous price tag attached to the plant caused him "great concern" and was one of the reasons why he cleaned house at the OLG just a few weeks after he took over responsibility for the corporation from Energy and Infrastructure Minister George Smitherman.

Duncan replaced the OLG board and fired its CEO, Kelly McDougald, in August. That same day, the government released thousands of pages of what were deemed "unacceptable" expense claims filed by lottery executives.

McDougald has launched an $8.4-million wrongful dismissal suit against OLG, the Crown and Duncan, claiming breach of contract, moral and punitive damages, defamation and "loss of opportunity to enhance reputation." The Ontario government has said it will dispute the claim.

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